Friday, June 22, 2012

Wonder Project J is something of a rare charmer - a duo of Japan-only "life sims" where you teach a robot boy and a robot girl how to interact with humans. Toss in a slight Ghibli aesthetic and it's a fascinating set of games, both of which have thankfully be fan translated. Kolibri is one of the few notable titles on the 32X, having been developed by Novotrade, the same folks behind the Ecco the Dolphin series. History will forever know it "arguably the best hummingbird-based shooter for the 32X", according to Penny Arcade, and while that bit reduces the game to a punchline, it's actually quite a good game, one of the rarities that show off the 2D power of Sega's neglected add-on. City of Lost Children is a sort-of adventure game similar to Alone in the Dark based on the 1995 movie by French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, which is not a fantastic game, but nonetheless a unique one. Holy Diver, one of the most ridiculously difficult action-platformers on the Famicom, starring a character that's practically a Trevor Belmont palette swap. And Soulless is a rather brilliant retro throwback, legitimately developed for and playable on Commodore 64 computers.The Games of the World section has been renewed, complete with an article on Tec Toy, who brought the Sega Master System to Brazil. Part 11 of the iOS Shooters article covers Bunz Fighters, Goku Flight, the IBM PC classic Raptor, and MoonTakers. Your Weekly Kusoge is the PC Engine CD Genocide, a cool looking but legitimately awful mech action game. And our Spotlight Article highlights a post from the blog about Aquario of the Clockwork, a long lost arcade game originally meant to be released in 1993. Its details have long been shrouded in mystery, but after our interview, Westone founder Ryuichi Nishizawa was able to find a disk containing the source code, and has been publicly asking if people would be interested in playing it. The logistics are still not in place - it's not clear whether the source code is complete, or how it will be emulated or sold - but it's a great start to hopefully see this bit of retro game history come to light.